m_sabrettes Reviews

Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)

See the Daleks on the Big Screen - In Color

[1 June 2000]

The absolute best thing about this film and the story it was derived from is the feeling of sheer dread and terror as very normal, everyday Earthly people are transported in a matter of minutes from a normal back garden to a very alien and very eerie purple planet. Poor Roy Castle falls through the front door at the beginning and within FIVE minutes he has both feet placed on the petrified landscape of the alien Skaro. Not only this, girlfriend Barbara soon finds herself alone in a weird metal city with sinister presences tracking her movement. One moment: Earth- safe, familar, the next: Skaro- alien, threatening. Pure science fiction classic. Obviously aimed at the kiddies during 60's Dalekmania, another thing this film does so well is to portray the planet of the Daleks as a purple, truly alien-looking and feeling place, something the Doctor Who TV series NEVER managed (having all the Skaro scenes filmed in quarries in bright Earth daylight). Yeah, it's naff. But isn't it great?

Quatermass (1979)

Most Chilling Quatermass yet

[28 May 2000]

The Quatermass Conclusion deals with an alien machine returning to the Earth after five thousand years to 'harvest' and stir-up the glandular secretions of humans which it then uses for it's own ends. Set in a near-future (in the 70s when it was released), the scene is an anarchistic, broken-down and violent vision of Britain, but none of the little touches are over the top enough to be classed as impossible. Prince Charles is on the throne, cars have number plates with 'v' on them and the Metropolitain Police are now privately contracted. Street crime, muggings and overall disorder are all the people know (oh no, it's all coming true!!) When the alien presence is identified as a threat rather than a religious saviour in a chilling Nigel Kneale trademark 'revelation of terror': the body parts in the ashes at Ringstone Round, Quatermass is employed in his quite usual role of leading science against politicians and the military machine to engage the menace. This seems to perk him up a little, when we see him first he is an old man broken down by the anarchy of society, depressed also that his work with the rocket group ended up being misused only for military ends. This is a very bleak piece which would depress viewers if it wasn't so busy chilling and terrifying the hell out if them with trademark Nigel Kneale 'terror revelations' and extremely succinct scientific concepts and valid predictions. Not only that, but it lays claim to having the most chilling and atmospherically terrifying aspect of all of the Quatermass films and serials, the spine-tingling refrain of 'huffity-puffity Ringstone Round'. I always only ever thought there were three Quatermass serials, Xperiment, II and Pit, up until about 4 years ago, when a conversation in a pub about there being another where 'people were being drawn to Stonehenge to be eaten' put me on the trail of this, and the first time I managed to get to see it after this revelation my blood ran cold at that nursery rhyme. I had a shudder just then recalling it.

Island of Terror (1966)

Sci Fi Golden Age CLASSIC Meisterwerk

[28 May 2000]

This film is my 2nd favourite ever, after Quatermass II. Dr Who fans especially should see it as it is Dr Who in all but name (with even a previous Doctor in the leading role). It's easy for anyone to say that the effects are stupid and it doesn't have a Star Wars budget but to do this is to miss the point entirely. Just like Dr Who, the idea is the STORY, not the effects, and also to put forward some really interesting scientific ideas in the context. Like Quatermass, the power of it is in the atmosphere, the tense, chilling suspense (like everyone being holed up in the island's village hall KNOWING that the Sillicates are OUT THERE in the dark, and COMING THIS WAY). Planet Film productions are so atmospheric, so brilliantly written and executed, and were definitely the forerunners for most Dr Who plots of the late 60s/70s. Check out also Night of the Big Heat by Planet Films, which is basically a carbon copy of this film (island cut off from mainland, rampaging monsters - and this time, Christopher Lee!). But do see it please, ignore the effects, they are but props on a stage used to illustrate the valid, terrifying scientific ideas and concepts at work here. Pls feel free to contact me if you are also a fan of this film.

Quatermass 2 (1957)

Terrifying Sci Fi Atmospheric Classic

[28 May 2000]

Val Guest's Quatermass II is my favourite film ever. The cold, dawning revelation that builds up all the way through the first half of the film that the invasion is actually underway and that the 'zombies' not only WALK AMONG US, but are actually IN CHARGE and IN POWER is terrifyingly atmospheric. I always like to think that if the invasion ever did come, it wouldn't come through massive mother ships as per Independence Day, but from within, from the suburbs, the rural villages. Really clever invaders would use Earth's own power structures, governments and resources against it without anyone noticing, not turn up en masse in flying saucers spoiling for a fight. The idea of the invasion falling to Earth in meteorites through a form of collective intelligence (recycled in the 1973 BBC Doctor Who serial Spearhead From Space) continues this threatening vein of invasion, and provides the most atmospheric scene in the film when Quatermass stands in the open night air as whizzing sounds around him give away the increased number of the meteorites now falling (the invasion is now fully underway!). Other scenes are just downright terrifying and follow the Kneale tradition of 'terror through revelation': the lorries in London carrying the symbol; Quatermass' first glimpse through the dome viewing panel; and when it is revealed how the zombies are blocking the pipes!! This 'revelation' aspect can be seen in all of the Quatermass films and serials (in The Quatermass Conclusion: when it is revealed by the body parts that the hippies weren't 'transported', in Quatermass and the Pit: 'you mean WE are the Martians!!'). Storytelling, atmosphere and terror like this hasn't survived the onset of today's special effects. Film makers like Dean Devlin just don't need to employ methods like this anymore, and this is why thinking people's science fiction relying on chilling, atmospheric and scientifically valid stories, plots and concepts will never ever be repeated.